Date: 10/19/2024 10/20/2024
Location: Star Ocean Meditation Center
Teacher: Otto Huang
Dharma Talk
The Great Brahma King who Thinks He Is the Creator
It is said that the world will experience large-scale, catastrophic fires, floods, and wind disasters.
When a catastrophic fire occurs, the world below the Light Sound Heaven will be destroyed (floods and wind disasters will respectively destroy up to the Pure Abode and the Fruitful Heaven). Before the destruction happens, all beings dependent on that world will leave first.
The order of destruction starts with hell, so hell will be emptied first. The emptiness of hell beings is partly due to the transformation of human behavior towards kindness, with people practicing the ten good deeds, and saints and gods coming to the human world to promote meditation, leading to a significant increase in people who attain the second level of meditation and are reborn in the second heaven (i.e., the Light Sound Heaven). No one will fall into hell anymore. On the other hand, it is because the karma of hell beings gradually gets exhausted, and they are reborn in the human world, where they practice meditation.
After hell is emptied, it will be followed by the realms of animals, hungry ghosts, and the heavens above the human world, including the Brahma heavens. The situation of emptiness is that the beings in the heavens, after exhausting their merits and lifespan, are reborn in the human world, attain human form, and then develop the meditation power above the second level, and are reborn in the Light Sound Heaven (or above).
Finally, the human world will also be emptied. A second sun will appear in the world, and then gradually increase to six suns, causing a great flame, and the world below the Light Sound Heaven will be completely burned down.
After the great fire disaster, after a long period, the world below the Light Sound Heaven will gradually form again: first, the Brahma world appears. Once, when the Brahma world formed, a being whose merits in the Light Sound Heaven had ended was reborn there. He retained the characteristics of the beings in the Light Sound Heaven, such as communicating with thoughts, feeding on joy, having a pure and glowing body, flying lightly, and having a very long lifespan.
This being lived alone in the Brahma world for a long time and gradually felt bored, desiring other beings to be reborn in the Brahma world to accompany him. When he had this desire, another being who had exhausted his merits in the Light Sound Heaven was reborn in the Brahma world. The first being mistakenly thought this was due to his desire, and he had this thought: “I am Brahma, the Great Brahma, the Almighty, the Unfailing One, the ruler of all things; the Lord of the World, the Creator of all, the Master of all beings, the Father of all that is born and unborn.” Later, beings who were born in the Brahma world had shorter lifespans and appearances than the first being and also believed that the first being was the creator, able to dominate all things, and enjoyed greater power.
Afterward, a being born later in the Brahma world, after exhausting his merits, was reborn as a human. In the human world, he diligently practiced meditation and gained the divine power of recollecting past lives. With this power, he remembered his past life in the Brahma world and began to proclaim that the Great Brahma (the first being born in the Brahma world) was indeed the creator, the ruler of all things, eternal, unchanging, and that we were all created by him, the father of all born and unborn beings.
Once, the Buddha told the elder Firm that there was once a monk with divine powers in the Sangha who had a question in his heart: “Where will the four material elements (earth, water, fire, and wind) cease to exist?” He used his divine powers to ask the gods in the various heavens but could not get an answer.
One day, when he came to the Brahma world, the gods there told him that he should ask the Great Brahma because he is the creator and can give the answer. So this monk found the Great Brahma and asked him in front of the gods. However, the Great Brahma only kept saying in front of the gods, “I am the Great Brahma, there is none greater than me… I am the creator of all things, the father of all beings.” Of course, the monk was not satisfied with this answer and repeatedly pointed out that the Great Brahma was not answering his question. Finally, the Great Brahma, unable to deflect him any longer, took the monk by the right hand to a corner where there were no other Brahma beings and quietly told him:
“I don’t know the answer either! But the Brahma beings all say that I am the creator, the wisest, so I can’t show that I don’t know in front of them. You are really foolish to not ask the Buddha in the human world but come here to ask me. You should remember well what the Buddha tells you.”
